


Come For The Shawarma, Stay For The Trauma

by Dreaming_Of_Darkness



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Bonding, F/M, Gen, M/M, Marvel Universe, Minor Original Character(s), Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pre-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Relationship(s), Secret Crush, Therapy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-18
Updated: 2019-02-17
Packaged: 2019-08-25 09:41:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,879
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16658777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dreaming_Of_Darkness/pseuds/Dreaming_Of_Darkness
Summary: It all started with a shared shawarma... next thing the Avengers knew, someone booked our heroes in for a group therapy session. Despite their pride, they all know that seeking professional help is long past it's due date...Wanna see Steve and Tony being honest with each other again? Wanna see the Guardians try to solve some petty arguments? Do you think you can guess who really stole the last shawarma from the cafeteria? All this and so much more to look forward to, including cameos from our resident wizard, a merc with a mouth, the God of mischief, an agent of Shield, and... Quicksilver?!.... .- .. .-.. / .... -.-- -.. .-. .-(This work is set in the MCU before Infinity War, but there are some liberties taken for certain characters (for example, Hawkeye is deaf and has Lucky the Pizza Dog))





	1. Introductions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to group therapy, Avengers! It's time to open up and allow old wounds to finally be sealed... or, maybe not just yet.
> 
> (This chapter contains spoilers for Civil War, Black Panther, and basically any MCU movie pre-Infinity War)

"Alright everyone," her soothing voice broke through the silence of the room as she absentmindedly adjusted her glasses, a smile lighting the counsellors soft and calming features, "Let's begin by introducing ourselves to each other, shall we?"

The addressed square room would normally be rather bland, it's beige sound proof walls apparently expected to provide a comforting atmosphere, but instead it only made the men and woman in said room feel all the more awkward. After all, a room full of multicoloured chairs, sofas and bean bags was not the kind of place you would expect to find a rag tag group of superheroes.

Steve Rogers was sat to attention upon a simple black chair with his best friend to his left, Bucky also sat upon the same make of chair as Steve, but with a much different posture. He sat with the chair backwards, so that his elbows could perch upon what would normally be the back of the chair, allowing Bucky to easily glance toward the man sat returning said glance at him from across the room: T'Challa.

Wakanda's mighty Black Panther was perched upon a window sill in a corner, a couple of the bean bags in said corner beside him sat upon by none other than Rhodey and Sam. The two had decided to pick the corner furthest away from most other people (probably so that they could keep the provided snacks to themselves) which Peter Parker was secretly disappointed about. The primary coloured bean bags had looked so comfy... but Peter had chosen to stay beside the only man in the room that he actually knew personally: Mr Tony Stark, who was sat next to him on the burgundy sofa they shared (the furthest comfortable seat from Steve).

Perched upon the edge of Peter's sofa arm was Natasha Romanoff, who made it apparent from her crossed arms and distant staring toward the room's vent that this was the last place she wanted to be. Opposite her was Scott Lang, who had opted to sit on one of the randomly scattered bean bags that was relatively close to Steve. The small smile on Scott's face implied that - even now - he was sill excited to be surrounded by these super heroes, despite all of the arguments he assumed would come some time soon. Two people who wished to avoid arguments, however, were Wanda and Vision, who sat next to each other on a leather brown sofa that was close to the counsellor's wooden chair, said chair complete with a comfy pillow.

As if the room wasn't full enough already, there was an Avenger missing... The counsellor glanced subtly at her watch just one last time, before deciding that Clint Barton would have to join them whenever he actually bothered to show up. Her schedule today was rather busy after all: she couldn't wait for anyone - not even an Avenger.

Upon a small coffee table in the centre of the room, the divine smell of the shawarma was almost too good to resist. But no-one was bold enough to get up and grab one - not when the room was full of such awkward intensity...

The counsellor cleared her throat, "All I'm asking is for someone to introduce themselves to the group and tell them why they're here today. That's not so hard, is it?"

Tony tried very hard not to laugh, a small snigger slipping past his lips. This situation was far too awkward and stupid...

"Tony," the counsellor turned her gaze upon said Avenger with a warm smile, "Why don't you start us off?"

Smirk dropping immediately, Tony quickly tried to regain his relaxed façade by slouching further into the couch, resting one arm along the back of it (probably the closest he'll get to wrapping his arm around Peter's shoulders) before forcing a smile toward Steve.

"Well, it's not exactly like we don't know each other." Tony stated.

"Yes, but the group doesn't know why you're here today," the counsellor replied simply.

Tony rolled his eyes, "Ma'am, don't you watch the news?"

"Please, Tony, as I said earlier, call me Hydee," the counsellor corrected him, "And let's say that I didn't watch the news - that I didn't know anything about the Avengers - what would you say is your reason for being here today?"

Tony rolled his eyes again, and Steve finally let out the frustrated sigh that he'd been withholding. Tony raised an eyebrow, "Got something to say, Rogers?"

"...I think that you're incredibly childish." Steve replied whilst giving Tony a blank stare, trying to suppress emotion.

"For what, not answering a question that we already know the answer to?" Tony's stare didn't hide any emotion - he was making it clear as daylight that being in this room with Steve was the last place he wanted to be. Especially with the Winter Soldier sat next to him with no emotions upon his features, glancing between the two conversing people as if this was the most casual thing in the world. As if he couldn't sense the giant void that was keeping each of the Avengers in their own small groups in different corners of the room... "Why don't you answer it then, if you're so mature?"

Steve sighed again, but complied, knowing the conversation would go nowhere otherwise, "Hello, I'm Steve Rogers, and I'm here today because the Avengers isn't... what it used to be."

Tony grumbled (beneath his breath) something about how stupidly vague Steve's statement was. Peter chuckled at this, but immediately stopped when the whole room gave him a confused expression, the teen almost visibly shrinking from the embarrassment.

"Thank you for sharing that with us Steve," Hydee gave Peter one of her best comforting grins as she spoke, "Peter, maybe you'd like to say something in response?"

"Ermmm..." the teen awkwardly shuffled in his seat, shoulders hunched a little, hands nervously coming together, before breaking apart so that one hand could scratch at the back of his neck, "I guess... that I agree?"

"Why?" Hydee prompted, aware that Peter had caught the whole room's attention, meaning that what he said next could (hopefully) spark a meaningful conversation.

"I don't know, I just, erm," Peter ran his hand from the back of his neck to his forehead, before pushing it through his hair again to calm his nerves, "Well, th-the Avengers isn't what it used to be... Thor and Hulk aren't here, and you guys aren't really a team anymore..."

Hydee smiled again to try to encourage Peter to relax, "And do you think that that's an important part of the Avengers? Being a team?"

"Well, yeah, obviously." Peter replied, hands returning to his lap, "The Avengers is a team, a-and they need to be one to keep saving the world!"

Steve smiled a fraction, but very quickly hid said grin. Tony, meanwhile, bit his tongue - he didn't want to argue with Peter.

"I agree," Rhodey spoke up from his corner of the room, drawing all eyes to lock upon him (Peter sighing in relief), "We may argue, but we really have gotta stick together. Who knows when the next Loki or the next Ultron's gonna show up - we've gotta be able to hit them back just as hard."

Sam nodded in agreement whilst popping one of the sweet snacks into his mouth. Scott and Peter also nodded frantically with a small smile, thinking that that statement was definitely what the Avengers were all about. Fighting the bad guys, saving the world, and... and being awesome! Wanda and Vision glanced toward each other, nodding, before looking back towards Rhodey with an expression that suggested that they agreed, but not entirely...

However, the rest of the room didn't seem so friendly. Bucky and T'Challa seemed tense and uncertain; Natasha was in her own world, picking at a loose button on her clothes; and Steve and Tony gave each other a blank stare... before averting their gazes.

"Thank you for your contributions, Peter and Rhodey," Hydee practically chirped, glad that they were finally getting somewhere, "We'll make sure to come back to this topic. But for now, does anyone else have a different reason for being here today?"

The room fell silent, the Avengers able to become aware of the slight rain shower that had began, leaving water droplets to race along the outside of the window... Before someone else finally broke the silence:

"I'm T'Challa," he spoke in a tone that somehow masked his true feelings, "And I'm here because I wanted to apologise for assuming that Bucky killed my father."

This statement made both Bucky and Hydee stare with wide, surprised eyes at T'Challa, and Tony shifted in an incredibly uncomfortable fashion. Hydee began flicking through the papers of her notebook, finding an empty page to begin making some important notes into whilst Bucky awkwardly smiled a tiny grin. Tony pretended to check his nails for machine grease.

"You've apologised enough, T'Challa..." Bucky said quietly, proving that Stark was not the only one uncomfortable with this situation.

"In your opinion, perhaps," T'Challa replied, "But I still feel like I owe you and anyone else I hurt in our fight against Zemo an apology."

"That's a very kind thing for you to do, T'Challa." Hydee complimented, ceasing her note taking to smile towards the Black Panther, before addressing the room again, "Does anyone else also want to apologise for something?"

Silence fell upon the room... before one by one, the Avengers began making quiet apologies to each other.

"I'm sorry I failed to stop that bomb..." Wanda mumbled.

"No-one blames you for that," Vision comforted with a smile, all of the members of 'team Cap' nodding encouragingly, "So you have nothing to apologise for."

"I'm sorry that I ate the last pizza from the fridge yesterday," Rhodey said, resulting in a couple of chuckles from the room, and a couple of frowns from those who had wanted said pizza.

Natasha - still playing with the loose button - mumbled, "At least it gave us a good excuse to get the shawarma's." Everyone nodded, proving that the broken Avengers could at least agree on something. Speaking of the shawarma's on the plate in the centre of the room, Natasha stood to get one, which encouraged a couple of other people to do so.

Peter shyly nudged Tony and whispered something, before springing up from the chair after Tony nodded, quickly grabbing two shawarma's before returning to his seat, handing one to Tony who gave a thankful grin towards the teen. Sam also swiped two shawarma's for himself and Rhodey (as if the sweets that they'd been munching weren't enough) and the last person who stood to get a snack was Scott.

"Erm..." Scott awkwardly began as he returned to his seat, nibbling at the shawarma "Falcon... I'm sorry about that time that I kicked your a--"

"Language." Steve whispered to himself. Natasha smirked.

"Don't mention it," Sam had spoken at the same time as Steve, cutting Scott off to save himself from embarrassment, "It's fine... and my name's Sam."

An almost comfortable silence settled upon the room then (the only sounds to be heard were the munching of delicious shawarma's and the faint pitter patter of rain outside) but unfortunately, Hydee had to break it.

"Steve, Tony," when she said each man's name, she punctuated it with the calming smile that never seemed to leave her face, "You two haven't said anything for a while. Perhaps you'd also like to make apologies."

The tension crept back into the room slowly - almost menacingly. Everyone was staring at either Steve or Tony, waiting for someone to make a move to talk. Instead, Tony gulped down another mouthful of shawarma and Steve shifted awkwardly in his chair, the silence clinging to the group with a vice-like grip... before, at last, the two men spoke at the same time:

"No."

Natasha groaned, not caring about the curious gazes she got because of it, "It's been months since we had that fight at the airport. It's been months since Bucky was proved to be innocent and the government has put some of us up as criminals, and ignored the rest. It's been months since the argument was solved - whether you like it or not - and here you both are, still refusing to apologise. Can't either of you see how ridiculous that is?"

A silence fell upon the room again... before Steve let out a sigh. Natasha had a point - this was becoming a little petty. Reluctantly, he opened his mouth to say--

"Bucky isn't innocent." Tony spoke first, now outright glaring at Bucky, who instinctively returned the harsh look.

Natasha face-palmed, grumbling, "Here we go again..."

"Didn't you hear T'Challa earlier?" Steve said, trying to mask his emotions beneath a cold and collected tone, "Zemo was the killer, not Bucky."

"That's not what I'm talking about," Tony's glare hardened, slowly turning upon Steve as his words took on a harsher and harsher tone, "You _know_ that's not what I'm talking about. You know what Bucky did to my parents... you knew all that time, and you didn't say _anything_."

Steve's façade finally snapped, and he returned Tony's scowl. Bucky too continued to glare, the room being reduced to the most tense silence it had felt yet, as even Hydee was at a loss for words. Keeping up a calm exterior, she began to frantically scramble through her mind for something to say that could steer the subject away from this topic. The pure rage and pain in the three glaring men's eyes spoke volumes about how this was not something any of them were ready to talk about just yet...

Suddenly, the door swung open. "Sorry I'm late," Clint Barton announced as he stumbled into the room, a steaming Starbucks in one hand and a sloppy pizza in the other as he spun on his heels to close the door, "Got caught up at home - the dog went wild, and I've got things to fix, and... erm..." Turning to face everyone in the room once the door was closed, Clint became acutely aware of the faces that were staring back at him. Well, more accurately, he was aware of the three men who didn't seem to care - who were far too busy having such an intense stare off that Clint almost shivered from the sight of it alone.

"...Did I miss somethin'?

.... .- .. .-.. / .... -.-- -.. .-. .-

At last, therapy was over. Tony practically barrelled out of the room, only stopping himself from storming away to allow Peter to catch up, not wanting to leave the kid around the likes of Steve. Speaking of Captain America, he and Bucky were last to leave the room, watching everyone else walk away down the corridors, before beginning their own exit. They needed to rendezvous with the underground Avengers as quickly and secretly as possible - after all, they are technically war criminals...

"Excuse me," the two men stopped upon the sound of Hydee's voice, looking back towards the counsellor who was poking her head out from behind the door to the beige room, "But can I talk to you privately for a moment, Bucky? You didn't really have much of a chance to talk today, so... I'll try to be quick, if you have places to be."

Bucky shuffled awkwardly on his feet, looking between Steve and Hydee for a while, before deciding: 'screw it', and stepping towards Hydee.

"I'll meet you in the usual place, Steve." Bucky said, before quickly stepping inside the soundproof room with Hydee, the door closing behind them. Steve stared at said door for a little while longer, before forcing himself to turn away, walking down the white washed corridors.

Today had been a disaster... or, maybe that was just himself and Tony's doing. This was the first of many group therapy sessions that the Avengers had booked, after all - plenty of time for the group to sort things out, and maybe reunite the Avengers once again. But making up with Tony?

...Well, Steve wasn't going to place any bets.


	2. (Admin update)

(Hello, sorry, this isn't a story chapter. I just wanted to let you guys know that this work isn't dead - it just won't be updated for a while. Why? Because my GCSE exams are coming up, and I'm being overloaded with homework and revision. Which sadly means that writing fanfiction has to take the back seat for now... so, if this work isn't updated for a few months, don't worry - I'll get back to it someday in the future. But I've gotta put my exams first... :'(

For now, here's some {potential} future chapters to look forward to, in no particular order)

  * Paper Areoplanes
  * Ragtag Family
  * Me, You, and the Voices
  * Iron Shield
  * You're My Mission
  * "And I wanted you to be better."
  * The Blind, the Deaf, and the Sorcerer
  * Dead Men Walking (aka Second Group Meeting)
  * Did You See Me Coming?
  * .... .- .. .-.. / .... -.-- -.. .-. .-



(And now the waiting game begins, as well as the betting game: what will put me out of my misery first, my exams or Endgame?)

(Also this fanfiction probably now exists in a no-Infinity-War universe because the plot I have in mind kinda just seems to be going in that direction, so fear not, there'll be no Snappenings... unless Endgame persuades me otherwise)


End file.
